Gene, vice president of operations for a major wholesale food distributor, told Session 7 of the Leadership Development Lab:

George, vice president of operations for a major food distributor, told Session 8 of the Leadership Development Lab:

"This past Tuesday morning when I got to work, I heard that all routes had left on time. I was excited. This was the first time all trucks had left on time on a Tuesday morning for over a month. About an hour later, I found out that one of our drivers, Randy, had overslept and was 1½ hours late. There went our perfect day. I left Randy a voice mail asking him to stop by my office when he got back to the branch. I decided to follow the correction process model we had learned three weeks earlier in the Leadership Development Lab. When Randy arrived, I invited him into my office. I asked, "How did your route go today?" After his response I said, "I see by the time clock records that you were 1½ hours late this morning. What can you tell me about that?" He tried to deflect in his answer by saying, "Yes, but my load has been a total mess!" I brought him back to the point that he was late for his route by again asking what happened. He gave me his excuse, not being aware of the schedule. I then reminded him that he is responsible for checking the schedule and being here as scheduled, on time! He accepted that responsibility. I then reminded him that our customers, the sales associate, our department and our branch count on him being a reliable member of the team. I asked him to agree to be accountable for being

here on time ‘dressed and ready to play’ from now on, and he made the commitment.

"The lesson I learned from this experience is that corrective action doesn’t have to be negative. Our associates want to know what is expected of them and want to do a good job. I also found that asking the open-ended question, "What happened?" and listening to the response the associate gave, gives me time to think of an appropriate response.

"The action I call you to take when applying correction action is to stop, listen and then take action. Let your associates know what is expected of them. If and when performance falls below agreed-to performance standards, correct the behavior, the action, not necessarily the associate. Listen to why this may have happened, and in listening comes the solution. Let them know you will listen to them without judging them first.

"The benefit you will gain is a team that will know what you expect of them, a team that believes they are important, an empowered team whose performance improves continually."

If you or anyone you know is a motorcycle enthusiast, they will love the excerpts from Larry’s newest book, Motorcycle Meditations – A Vision Quest to Alaska, which can be found in the June, July and August issues of Twin Magazine. The June issue goes on sale at newsstands May 10th. Pick it up, read it and share it with your friends!